Lalu Yadav vacates Tughlaq road bungalow

New Delhi: Former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav has vacated his official bungalow in Lutyens zone allotted by the erstwhile UPA government. The allotment of the bungalow was cancelled in November 2013 when Lalu was convicted in the multi-crore fodder scam case and sentenced to five years in prison and fined Rs 25 lakh.

According to the official sources, the former Bihar chief minister has vacated the 25 Tughlaq Road Type 8 bungalow on January 13. It was allotted by the previous UPA government to Lalu when he was the Rajya Sabha MP in 2002.

Later, the Manmohan Singh-led government had once again allotted the bungalow to Lalu after his induction into the Union Cabinet in 2004.

The NDA Government, which came into the power in 2014, has asked the former Union Minister to vacate the bungalow.

In no hurry for Janata merger: Lalu

Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday said that he was in no hurry to merge the various Janata parties, saying the proposed unity will take more time.

"I am not in a hurry for the merger of Janata 'parivar' because any work or decision finalized in a hurry can be bad," he told the media here.

The former Bihar chief minister added that Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was the final authority on the issue.

"Mulayam Singh has been authorised by all of us to take the final decision." According to speculation here, Janata Dal-United leaders Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav are keen on an early merger of their party with the Rashtriya Janata Dal in view of the assembly elections this year.

The Janata 'parivar' parties have spoken about uniting after suffering a rout in the Lok Sabha election last year.